Strategic Review

 

Hold on to your hats, it was 12 months in the making, but now the Strategic Review has finally been released. RL Club-Led Strategic Review v3 (1).indd

Most of the juicy titbits have already been released, but I will attempt to extract the content that caught my eye.

Salary Cap

I never mentioned the words Salary Cap before, so here is what is in the review:

42. The Salary Cap should be simplified to ensure all actual costs relating to players are covered within the scope of the regulations. It should be policed. The level of the cap should be correlated with the levels of central distribution. Actual costs, so this needs to include cleaning jobs performed (or not performed) by spouses. Marwan Koukash got hit with fines for buying cars for his best players.

43. The sport should consider re-introducing a live Salary Cap system once all commercial and investment matters are known. This should link to a strategic plan for player costs. I thought that a live Salary Cap system was already in place.

44. Clubs should be able to sign a maximum of two marquee players as per the current regulations, but such players must be made available to work with RL Commercial on commercial, media and other engagements. A maximum of two marquee players as per the current regulations - pretty sure the system was modified to allow a 3rd marquee as long as he was club-developed talent. French and Field are going to be very busy doing turns for the RFL. As a matter of transparency, every club should announce their Marquee signings.

Women's Rugby League

59. There is a need to improve the standard of player and athlete welfare offered in the Women’s Super League. There is a need to pay them properly, but that is not going to happen because the sport is not financially viable.

Challenge Cup

64. Men’s Super League clubs should enter at the round of 32. They should be seeded and drawn away from home. This has already been in operation for the last two seasons.

66. Across the centre and at clubs, more thought, budget and resource is needed to promote the Challenge Cup. Yes it should. The Challenge Cup has been neglected for years. For some clubs, the Challenge Cup is still very important. The Leigh Leopards spent a year taking it out into the community at every possibility.

67. Consideration should be given to the creation of a ‘Magic Weekend-style’ round of the Challenge Cup to truly put the magic back into the competition. This would ideally be the Round of 16, creating a new event and broadcast product. This is one of the better solutions to the Magic Weekend conundrum. Moving to 14 teams to eliminate a loop fixture and then putting one back in for Magic Weekend. The current Magic Weekend to be held at Hill-Dickinson stadium is selling very well, due to the venue and the rivals round format. 

69. There should be a fixed date in the calendar for the final. Nice idea in principle, but if they decide to move it away from Wembley, that would cause issues finding a permanent home at an alternative Football Stadium.

70. The sport should consider a new venue for the final. (see 69)

Player production

91 Consideration should be given to reducing the number of elite Academies playing in the professional structure. These clubs should have to meet strict standards of player development and output, and be properly staffed and funded. Reducing the number of elite Academies - this has created more inequalities in the game than anything else. Leigh Leopards have often been criticised for not producing any future stars of the game. At various times, the club has not been able to afford to run an academy and also the RFL have denied the club a license due to all the licenses being assigned. Why should there be a set number of Academies? Is it due to the proximity to the Piedome? It would be interesting if Brad O'Neill and Jack Farrimond had been through an Academy at Leigh. Let's reduce the Academies to Wigan, St Helens, Warrington and Leeds and then wonder why the Super League Grand final was only won by 4 teams until last year. No thanks. The sensible solution would be to take the Academies out of the club hands, into regional centres of excellence. This creates another problem when it comes to signing for professional clubs. If the current system is kept in place, there needs to be protection for the clubs that nurtured the young players. At the end of last season, Wigan and St Helens went to war over the next crop of youngsters, trading players in a tit for tat exchange. Under 21's should stay contractually under the wings of the parent club, as long as the big clubs do not abuse the system and treat the players like chattel.

92 Encouragement should be given to regional Academies being set up between consenting clubs to improve the offer to young players and to widen player pools. Yes, but who funds the regional academies?

95 In the short term, there should be increased access to overseas talent pools. Expansion in Super League and NRL has resulted in a land grab. Super League grab the Under 25 talent from the State Cup sides, and the new NRL teams raid Leigh and Leeds. The search will branch out to other clubs, but for now it was totally necessary to increase the overseas quota to 10.

97. There should be a review of the current welfare and support functions for players. A strategy to better fund welfare and provide a Player Association function paid for by those that use it should be developed and operationalised. This should be primarily funded by the players themselves or through commercial fundraising activity. A plan should include medical provision, welfare and wellbeing, and could act for players on contractual matters. An absolute no-brainer. Mandatory contributions from all players, Clubs and the RFL. If you are opposed to the term Union, then call it a Players Association. 

The contest, broadcast, product and season schedule

98 There should be new events and broadcast packages created to improve broadcast revenues. As a Rugby League fan, I pay for Skysports, but in reality I am subsidising Football fans. The large bulk of the TV revenue goes straight to the EFL Premier League. My household watches Rugby League, Darts and Cricket (no football). Put the sports on a dedicated channel and reduce my bill by removing the Football channels. The cost might not be so high if the Firestick users were caught and had to pay fines.

99 Consideration should be given to events that showcase different attributes of players including Rugby League 9s and other linked sports provided such events are strategically delivered and financially sustainable in the medium term. Not enough room in the season. No Club would want to risk their players in an exhibition-style tournament. Make it an Olympic sport, and then people might be interested. 

100 The sport should consider starting the season with a match between the Challenge Cup winners and the Grand Final winners to raise money for the sport’s charity, Rugby League Cares. Nice idea, but played in January (no thanks).

102 The sport must ensure there is a balance between free to air, subscription TV and streaming broadcast rights. Market Segmentation, this used to be about competition, but in reality, it is about the fan forking out multiple subscriptions for a product they used to get in one place.

105 There should be a new strategy for Super League Plus to make the sport a 24/7 accessible product and showcase additional matches from other Rugby League competitions, podcasts and other shoulder content, including press conferences, disciplinary hearings and other behind-the-scenes material. This should include using the platform to showcase players as fully-rounded people, celebrate history and traditions of the sport and create new programmes for younger audiences. More content, yes please.

106 The calendar should be redrafted to create peaks for the sport and ensure that data is used to place important matches at times of peak viewership. The calendar should also avoid clashes with other significant sporting or public events. Nice idea in principle, but good luck scheduling that. They have enough problems with resurfacing Football pitches and playing away for weeks on end. Starting the season at the same time as the 6 Nations is also not good planning, but it can't be avoided.

107 Tier 2 should consider amending its season so that it has a period in the calendar where that competition has all Rugby League eyes focused on it. Televised Championship Rugby in the winter months. Not sure there is a demand for snowy and muddy pitches.

109 Laws and Policy should aim to speed up the contest both in actual time and the speed at which it is played, and should attempt to make the collision as physical as possible whilst maintaining player safety. Faster ruck speeds - implemented.

112 Work should be done with broadcast and commercial partners to use technology and data during and after the contest to bring the sport closer to the fans, tell more insightful stories and drive new and better revenue streams. Yes

113 Changes to disciplinary regulations should be implemented with the aim to keep more players on the field whilst punishing repeat infringers and protecting players from serious foul play. The purpose of the disciplinary panels and processes should not be to re-referee each incident. Neither should it be beneficial to the bigger clubs.

Rugby League Journalists

 

In the late 80's and early 90's, the only place to get Rugby League news was in the newspapers. As a regular reader of The Independent the main Rugby League correspondent was Dave Hadfield. In my opinion he was one of the best National Newspaper journalists who ever covered the sport. I also met Chris Irvine, who wrote for the The Times several decades. Both of these were proper journalists, writing for proper newspapers at a time when the printed word was important.

The modern day equivalent would be Aaron Bower and Matthew Shaw, with Aaron trumping Matt because he occasionally writes for The Guardian. The other main journalists I can think of are Martyn Sadler, John Davidson. and feature writer Gavin Willacy. 

On the whole Love Rugby League and All Out Rugby League do a really good job, they scour the club sites, and forums and have the ear of coaches and agents. Total Rugby League, have positioned themselves behind a paywall, and sometimes you wait a week to read article which you find out is two paragraphs long and you have wasted your weeks allocation.

The scourge of the Rugby League is obviously reserved for Serious About Rugby League (SARL) which is 99% Clickbait. They have recently branched out into podcast territory, providing one of the worst podcasts on Youtube. One of the most watchable podcasts is provided by Rugby League Outsiders, the presenting is amateurish but engaging, but their production values are absolutely top notch, which puts to shame The Last Tackle Podcast which should have much higher production values, due to having a string of top ex-players like Kev Brown, Adrian Morley and Paul Sculthorpe. Instead it is like they have used a 15 year old mobile phone to record the programme.

All Out Rugby League have branched out and now produce high quality show Back Ten, with the omnipresent Kyle Amor, who despite the gruff hairy arsed prop routine is quite amiable. High quality guests range from James Graham, Steve McNamara, Adrian Morley and Ellery Hanley, The latter of course was totally unwatchable, Hanley may have been the best player I have ever seen, but as a person is unpleasant and unintelligible. He is the Rugby League equivalent of Chris Eubank.

Super League Raw, gets an honourable mention, with low production values, they provide enthusiastic and informed opinion. Graphics are good and the research is impressive, but the Zoom style podcast is still a little low brow.

The rest have some merits like, Total Rugby League. Martyn Sadler maybe one of the most influential journalists, but he lacks the presence of a presenter with stuttering gutteral utterances between sentences.

The main reason for this post was the standard of output from one of Love Rugby Leagues journalists, Louis Chapman Coombe, who has churned out 694 articles in 18 months without knowing very much about the game. Predicting how Leigh Leopards and Leeds Rhinos could line-up for round one | Love Rugby League dated 13th January 2026, Chapman Coombe uses his inside knowledge to predict how Leigh and Leeds will line up. 

Likely Leigh Leopards starting line-up:

1 Bailey Hodgson
2 Keenan Brand
3 Tesi Niu
4 Umyla Hanley
5 Innes Senior
6 Adam Cook
7 Lachlan Lam
8 Joe Ofahengaue
9 Edwin Ipape
10 Robbie Mulhern
11 Jacob Alick-Wiencke
12 Owen Trout
13 Isaac Liu
Bench: 
14 Liam Horne
15 Aaron Pene
16 Jack Hughes
17 Matt Davis

First issue is number 5. the starting winger on the left flank, has gone to new boy Innes Senior. Lam is very conservative with his playing squad and normally only inserts players due to injury or impressive performance in training (pre-season). The current incumbent of the no.5 jersey is Josh Charnley, sitting second on the all-time Super League eight tries behind Ryan Hall. Louis thinks Senior will replace Charnley before a ball as been kicked.

Adam Cook will play at no.6, Lammy Snr has stated this numerous times and Gaz O'Brien will be used more sparingly.

The props Joe Ofahengaue, Robbie Mulhern and Owen Trout, all three are starting props, so who drops out? The answer is not clear, but for the first game I predict maybe Robbie Mulhern becoming the impact prop. It would allow Leigh to play with only the three props in a rotation. This would also depend on the health and performances of Aaron Pene, who I agree will be on the subs bench. What I don't expect is for Frankie Halton not to make the match day squad. I was so shocked I had to research if Halton had surgery in the pre-season. I full expect Frankie to wear No.11 and start as the left sided 2nd rower. Frankie's 2nd row partner will be Alick-Wienke or Owen Tout. 

The bench will contain Liam Horne, Aaron Pene, but the other 2 positions will occupied by one of the props or one of the 2nd rowers, with Jack Hughes or Matt Davis to appear as 18th man.

Honestly there is no way Josh Charnley and Frankie Halton are sitting eating popcorn in the stands.

The next offering is: Every Super League club's best signing ahead of 2026 incl Hull KR 

Leigh Leopards: Jacob Alick-Wiencke

Potentially one that’s gone under the radar, but it’s a very good piece of business from the Leopards.

If you know anything about the Leigh Leopards, then you will know that they need a quality half-back. Gaz O'Brien and Ben McNamara did a reasonable job assisting Lachlan Lam. In 2024 Leigh signed Matt Moylan, a sublime attacking threat, but he came from the NRL with rumours of being a bit light in defence. This proved to be the case, and to counteract this, Lammy swapped O'Brien and Moylan. Moylan was fine at Full-back until he bruised his ribs. He cut his contract short and Leigh signed Armstrong at Full-back leaving O'Brien at stand-off. All of 2025, everybody was crying out for a new half-back, with more creativity than O'Brien. The star Leigh signing is therefore Adam Cook.

Louis Chapman Coombe's bio suggests a favouring of Union over League, and to be quite honest, he should stay there.